Taiwan on the International Stage, But How?

The 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan are finally over, and it had been nothing short of a spectacle. But as much as mainstream media outlets around the world such as the Economist report on the event, it ultimately was an internal affair, a decision cast by the Taiwanese voters themselves about their own matters.

Just a few months ago, two events occurred that deserve some more reflection, because they speak to how Taiwan should reexamine its relationship with the rest of the world.

First, the meeting between Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese president Xi Jin-ping in November last year was supposedly a momentous event, leading to some sort of a breakthrough in Taiwan-China relations. But the meeting produced no relaxation of China’s stance on Taiwan. Instead, Xi tried to reaffirm China’s claim to Taiwan by proclaiming that China and Taiwan were the same “family” and should cooperate to rejuvenate the “Chinese nation.” In Xi’s mind, the message was clear – Taiwan is part of China.

China denies Taiwan’s status as a country and continuously restricts Taiwan’s international space. The specter of the neighbor across the strait looms large in almost everything from international trade deals to multilateral institutions to even beauty contests. Of course, the apology that Taiwanese pop star Tzuyu, a member of Korea’s girl band Twice, issued online further drove home the point that China will throw its weight around to bully even 16 year old girls into ending her career.

China’s influence and interference may always be upon Taiwan, but China is losing out in trying to subvert Taiwan’s identity and the world is gradually coming to understand this. The Sunflower Revolution movement, the Ma-Xi meeting and the 2016 national elections have attracted significant media coverage that highlight the fact that unification with China is not something the majority of Taiwanese want.

Second, an unsavory incident happened at home that raised questions about Taiwanese attitudes towards foreigners. An expat in Taipei was verbally assaulted and provoked for almost 10 minutes on the Taipei MRT by a fellow rider. The Taiwanese was a security guard but insulted the expat over supposedly being poor, called him a loser and then called the expat’s girlfriend, who recorded the whole incident, a whore for dating a foreigner. It was a worrying example of an anti-foreigner inferiority complex.

While the majority of Taiwanese do not share such vile racist feelings, that does not mean it is non-existent nor is it unprecedented. Earlier in the year, a Taiwanese band released a video for a song called “Foreigner” that makes fun of interracial relationships and specifically, Western men. Meanwhile, there are still some locals who have negative perceptions towards Southeast Asians, especially Filipinos and Indonesians who work in Taiwan as manual laborers and maids.

(By Chieh-Ting Yeh)

Taiwan as periphery

The common theme between these two seemingly unrelated events is in the uncertainly over how Taiwan defines itself in the context of the rest of the world. One of the hand, the Taiwanese society had been debating its identity, however necessarily, almost exclusively in terms of how Chinese it is, or not. On the other hand, the Taiwanese society harbors a range of emotions, from fear to disdain, towards that which is foreign and unknown. While it is becoming unthinkable for the Taiwanese to be Chinese, it has also been unthinkable for the Taiwanese to be more of anything else.

Because of the weight placed on Taiwan’s Chinese roots and the rule of the Republic of China one-party regime, Taiwanese society had been taught that it is a homogeneous society of Han descendants living on a small offshore island. This view of history had embedded itself into the Taiwanese consciousness and made Taiwan an inward looking society. The Han culture stresses legitimacy from the center of power, and sees culture in terms of the distance from the imperial power center: the farther one is from the center, the more barbaric one is. This explains why the Taiwanese, when looking at themselves as a periphery of China, feel inferior, but when looking at themselves compared to foreigners (especially those in more southern parts of the world), feel superior. This explains why the Taiwanese often treat indigenous Austronesian culture as an afterthought, or an anomaly, or worse, as a social ailment that needs to be regulated. This explains why while Taiwan is trying to attract foreign investments and talents, it has also been debating on whether to ease restrictions on hiring foreign nationals.

Taiwan cannot afford to become so inward, especially with China squeezing it on the international stage. The Taiwanese society must contemplate what it means for Taiwan to become more globally relevant beyond participating in multilateral organizations and free-trade deals.

Taiwan can reject China’s unreasonable claims on its sovereignty and its identity, but it also needs to define its place in the world; otherwise it risks getting caught in a deepening isolation. Increasing relations with other countries, especially its neighbors, needs to be a priority. This comes at a time when a declining economy with less stable jobs and stagnant salaries has caused many Taiwanese to feel uncertain about its own future.

Taiwan, already internationalized

First, internationalization can start at home, with how Taiwanese views itself historically. Instead of a uncivilized frontier island, Taiwan should see itself as the intersection of global maritime trade routes since ancient times. Austronesian peoples have traveled on seafaring kayaks throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with their origins from Taiwan. Dutch and Spanish traders vied to establish colonial posts in Taiwan, and the Japanese and Chinese all have ruled Taiwan with an eye towards international trade. Since the 1800s, merchants in Dadaocheng in Taipei bought spices from Southeast Asia and sold tea to Europeans. Its manufactured products in the 1970s and electronics in the 1990s were exported to markets worldwide.

In this view of history, Taiwan should look less to China and much more towards Singapore as a reference. Singapore itself is a good example of a small country surrounded by larger neighbors, a state that has exceeded its geographic and demographic limits. It counts Malay, Tamil, Mandarin and English as its official languages, with the last being the most commonly used in business, not to mention Hokkien (referred to as Taiwanese in Taiwan) as a n unofficial language of sorts. It focused on its strengths as a hub of international shipping, and adopted policies that are welcoming to foreign labor.

To facilitate Taiwan becoming a more globally open environment, Taiwan should take steps in making English an official language. In May, Tainan began implementing policies to bring more English into the public life.

Moreover, Taiwan must look beyond China and seek stronger ties with neighboring countries like Southeast Asia in fields like economic ties, cooperation or cultural exchanges. It is fitting that the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen and the KMT’s Eric Chu have mentioned boosting economic ties with Southeast and South Asia rather than just relying on China and hence, furthering an unhealthy dependency. As the new president-elect, Tsai’s New Southbound Policy mentions “people-to-people, cultural, educational and research linkages” in addition to investments and economic ties. Now that the elections are behind us, it is imperative that the new administration in Taiwan look beyond China to build up its international presence, rather than become more isolated.

As recent events point out, Taiwan has a long way to go towards changing its views about its own standing in the world. Becoming globally relevant is not only a matter of the economy and diplomacy, but it is a matter of identity. In all of these regards, Taiwan needs to abandon looking at itself through the lens of China, and adopt a more holistic view that is, ultimately, Taiwan’s own.

Hilton is a freelance writer who has worked in various newspapers, magazines, and tech firms in Taiwan and China. His work ranges from opinion pieces to travel and culture. He is currently based in Taiwan.

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Marie-Paule

Taking one or two particular examples of racist attitude toward foreigners to make a general statement about the Taiwanese is unprofessional, not constructive and wrong. As a foreigner living on this Island for more than 30 years I bear witness to the Taiwanese being one of the most friendly and hospitable people that I have come across my entire life, besides, they are often very helpful with foreigners who do not know their way around or do not read nor understand Chinese. That a man obviously disturbed and in a bad mood- for one reason or another- starts verbally abusing an expatriate sitting next to his local girlfriend is deplorable but remains an exception and doesn’t reveal anything basically true of most Taiwanese. Taiwanese usually keep to themselves , do not judge nor attack others for no reason verbally or otherwise. You wouldn’t call all Taiwanese murderers because of the attacks on the subway by a young unbalanced fellow two years ago. Would you ? One fact is never a generality especially for a journalist . Secondly, I would have to disagree with you as for the reasons why the Taiwanese may at times be perceived as feeling ” superior ” to say Austronesian people or South east Asians who came to Taiwan as laborers, in the collective memory of a few, it has to do with a class distinction inherited from dynastic China and not racism. Also, you must know that Taiwan has been sheltered from the rest of the world by its insularity and through History and that the people here weren’t allowed to travel abroad up until the end of the Martial law, a lot of them knew of the outside world what they had seen in some imported movies and nothing more until they started going out and see the world for themselves. In terms of History , this is very recent . To conclude, I would like to say that if indeed the people on this Island have to improve the way they interact with the foreigners and be more aware of what exists elsewhere in the world, they also have to be extremely careful not to loose their own identity that comes in part from the Chinese language and the ancient Chinese characters and so should not switch to English as an official language, quite the opposite, but should emphasize the need to preserve and teach all the Austronesian languages that remain on the Island as well as Hakka and Taiwanese for they are all at the heart of Taiwan’s culture. They also should be very cautious when dealing with the ” new foreigners ” that have been visiting the Island in more recent years and who didn’t come here for the mere love of Calligraphy or the Chinese language like most of us ” old ” expatriate, but have sometimes disrespected the girls in this country and this may be why the song you mention in your article above could somewhat be relevant ( rather than racist ) because it teaches the women to open their eyes and to not fall for a person only because he is a foreigner. Finally, I do hope that Taiwan will become that Island that has preserved all its specificity while opening up to the best of the outside world, because I care for this Island that has become my home and has given me so much in terms of tolerance and kindness, to which of course there will always be exceptions. I believe that the future of the Island is linked to the development of smart clean energies that will give more opportunities in term of employment for the youth and less dependence from imports and that we should concentrate on these questions rather than on issues discussed in your article.
My only goal is to try and be helpful to the future of this Nation Island by sharing my own experience here.

Craig Butler

This is fine article with a caring and constructive perspective. The stakes are existential, and must begin with the social engineering of the notion of “Who is Taiwanese?” along with work on the political and economic fronts. It is not too long ago that even Ma Ying-jeou implied this in his claim that he (and the generation of [mainland] Chinese refugees allied with the KMT) embrace a new identity as “New Taiwanese.” (It is interesting that while 本省／外省 tensions seemed to be of such great concern, a blind eye was turned to Taiwan’s 原住民.)

A blueprint for crafting such a future, while visionary, is also revolutionary, and will encounter immense challenges with implementation. That such an ideological shift is even out there is not widely aired among [Han] Taiwanese themselves, who unlike those in Singapore are not predisposed to think of themselves as anything other than the superordinate ethnic group whose status extends from the historical and political “China.” On everyone’s mind will be what the Chinese response will be (predict it to be increasingly volatile). If Tsai Ying-wen can weave this into “the status quo” and lead the country into a period of peaceful coexistence and codependence in the region, she will go down in history as the mother of the country.

These are interesting psychologicizations on the mindset of [Han] Taiwanese. I’m suspending judgment on the notion that [Han] Taiwanese feel somehow inferior because they are “distant” from the cultural center of Chinese heritage, or are disposed to look down on all foreigners. Most old-world societies are hierarchical of one sort or another (by blood, by religion, by clan, etc.), and continue to manifest these hierarchies in systemic prejudice and discrimination. Suggesting racism doesn’t exist in Taiwan is just naive: it exists everywhere. Sensitivity to and action against racism is often difficult where it is not noticed, and will take time, and as the history of modern America has shown. Despite a half century of civil rights legislation and its own social engineering, racism is still pernicious and persistent. Only yesterday I saw a clip of a middle-aged white supporter of Donald Trump scream at a black protester that she should “Go back to Africa.” Just because I grew up in an all-white northern suburb of Boston and didn’t experience the manifestation of racism in daily life doesn’t mean I was untouched by racism. This past year has seen much written about “white privilege” that is worth perusing.

For Taiwan to be intentional about its new nationhood “at the intersection,” there should be continued reckoning with the status of indigenous cultures, and resources given to social reconstruction. This is always tricky where the goal of integration must live side-by-side with respect and support for diversity, but people are smart and there are models where some form of reparations can be implemented, perhaps in the form of investment in education and infrastructure, along with righting of land-claim issues.

I take the suggestion to make English a national language to be one of making it “additive,” and not “subtractive.” Tainan and elsewhere (in at least one Atayal community I know of) are being forward-thinking in forging links to the world (and the future) by developing English. As wonderful an idea it is that all languages of Taiwan were spoken and supported by all, human capacity for learning language and societal capacity in terms of resources put functional limits on the notion.